I’ll Never Be Bored, As Long As I Keep Learning
Every time I take a class, I have renewed inspiration to continue to treat my clients. There’s no end to what we can learn to help people with. I certainly won’t have time to learn everything that is needed to help every client with every problem they have. But every time I delve in and learn more, I see that so much more is possible. I begin to believe that I can help more people, with or without specific new skills. I feel my mind open to possibilities of deeper healing than I would have ever imagined when I was a new therapist just starting out.
This weekend I am taking my first Manual Approach to the Brain class, by the Barral Institute, taught by Gail Wetzler. Gail is such a precise, compassionate, and enthusiastic teacher. She is incredibly easy to learn from, and one of my favorite teachers of all time.
The material in the class is nothing short of brilliant. We started by feeling what the brain does with the eyes closed, and then with the eyes open. I’m 2/3 of the way through the class, and we have learned to work on the blood supply to the brain, the eyes, the transmission of information from the eyes to the different parts of the brain. Tomorrow we will finish learning to work on the olfactory nerve and processing of smell in the brain, and more. We have talked about all kinds of brain diseases and injuries, and what is being done to help people, without the use of drugs, surgery or other interventions. The Barral Institute, and Gail herself, are very interested and active in gathering data that proves that what we are doing is working, and doctors are starting to take note. We just need more communication and collaboration with them, to be able to reach more people who need this type of work.
After just one eye technique today, all of a sudden I could read the powerpoint on the wall without squinting. My vision has not been great for several years now. My eye doctor put my prescription just below what I needed for 20/20 vision, because that cleared up my jaw pain. I haven’t been able to read street signs for years. But today I can, after getting my eyes worked on. Lights appear brighter, my vision is sharper, and you know what else? I felt giddy after class, even though we went an extra hour and everyone was tired. I felt like going out to party! (I didn’t, of course… that’s why I’m writing this blog post.) I felt like this after day three of the pelvis visceral course, too, as all of the issues with the uterus, bladder and other structures started to be eased.
It’s amazing we can function at all with so many things restricted in our bodies at any given time. But that IS the amazing thing about it. We were designed to be able to heal from the inside out, and to keep living despite injuries, illness, and fatigue. Just look at what your body has been through already, and yet you are still living, breathing, loving, eating, pooping, and moving through life. Look at how fast your skin heals when you cut or bruise yourself. We were made to heal.
The other day someone said something about how most people don’t really love their jobs. I thought, Those poor people! I do love my job! I love treating people and problem-solving and troubleshooting their physical, emotional, mental and sensory problems via bodywork, and I absolutely love sharing what I have learned and experienced with the students who show up ready to learn!
Learning is one of my values, passed on to me by my late father. He loved learning. We often saw him sleeping in bed with either the dictionary or the Bible open against his chest. He was known to read at least a page of the dictionary because he looked up one word, and then in the coming days he would be practicing all the words he could remember, putting them into sentences so he wouldn’t forget them. He never stopped learning until he stopped breathing.
That’s how I want to be. Learning keeps me interested in living life. It keeps me engaged in helping people, knowing if I listen well enough to their bodies, I will be able to follow its guidance and help them to get on a path to healing.
Teaching is another one of my values. I feel it is a responsibility to pass on what we have learned to the next generation. It’s true in bodywork, too. Not everyone just starting out has the means to attend these expensive classes—I know I didn’t. It takes a lot of money to travel to classes, take time off work, and the tuition itself can add up quickly. That’s why I want to provide local trainings in my hometown, as well as other smaller towns—to make this type of knowledge more accessible to newer therapists who have families to care for at home still, and limited means for continuing education, but who share a deep desire to learn, to become a master of their craft of bodywork.
Oh, I won’t be teaching brainwork anytime soon. But I can provide a good foundation of a deep knowledge of principles on which to build. I can be content with that. For now.
